Greenland is a self-governing territory of 57,000 people within the kingdom of Denmark. Its capital is Nuuk. The island's parliament, the Inatsisartut, has 31 members.
Greenland has a long-running independence debate, rooted in the legacy of Danish colonial rule. America occupied Greenland during the second world war and returned it to Danish rule in 1945. President Harry Truman worried greatly about returning the island, which controlled vital skies and sea lanes, but he opposed imperialism and dropped a proposal to buy Greenland in favour of a treaty guaranteeing America bases on the island. Generosity, Truman believed, was "America's superpower." William Seward, Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, who had led the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, had tried to buy Greenland from Denmark in 1868. The independence movement has been complicated by Donald Trump's stated desire to buy or conquer the island. Trump directed American intelligence agencies, including the CIA and National Security Agency, to step up surveillance of Greenland's independence movement and identify locals sympathetic to American designs.
In March 2025 J.D. Vance visited Greenland, claiming Denmark had "not done a good job by the people of Greenland." The resulting outrage pushed Greenland and Denmark closer together. Elections to Greenland's parliament in March 2025 gave the opposition Democrats, who favour closer ties with Denmark and a slower path to independence, a plurality.
The 1951 US-Danish Defence of Greenland treaty provides the legal basis for American military presence on the island. America had as many as 17 military facilities and around 10,000 soldiers there during the cold war, including radar stations on the "DEW (distant-early-warning) Line" built to detect Soviet bombers and ballistic missiles heading for the United States. It now has fewer than 200 troops and a single missile-defence base. Pituffik Space Base, the site of a large radar that allows the Pentagon to observe approaching Russian missiles, has been "relegated to an afterthought" and is literally falling apart: its concrete was laid on permafrost that is now melting and shifting, ripping door frames from the floor, spreading walls apart and fracturing runways from constant freezing and thawing. Trump has claimed that Russian and Chinese aircraft-carriers and gunships are "going up and down the coast of Greenland", but the threat is exaggerated: Chinese icebreakers have showed up and Russian submarines at times lurk there, yet NATO has long guarded the Atlantic's "high north", and its defences have grown more robust since Sweden and Finland joined the alliance. NORAD recorded no incursions in the air-defence identification zone around Greenland between 2020 and 2025, in contrast with 91 around Alaska. In October 2025 Denmark announced plans to spend $8.8bn on military equipment, not least for the Arctic. There are no explicit limits on the number of troops the United States can deploy to Greenland under the terms of its treaty with Denmark, though any significant change would probably require Danish consent.
On January 5th 2026 Germany's foreign minister affirmed that Greenland would come under NATO's Article 5 security guarantee against American predations. France has considered sending troops to Greenland; though no match for the United States, they could act as a tripwire to raise the political costs of intervention. On January 14th 2026 Denmark's foreign minister met with Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, but the sides "agreed to disagree." Europe has weighed three strategic options: deflating Trump's concerns within existing frameworks (including a proposed NATO "Arctic Sentry" naval mission); deterring through tough measures such as suspending trade deals and establishing European troop rotations in Greenland; or simply hoping Trump loses interest. Denmark, France, Germany and Sweden have all contributed to an increased military presence. Most European politicians remain reluctant to escalate, fearing it could jeopardise Ukraine security guarantees.
After snatching Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela on January 3rd 2026, Donald Trump set his sights on Greenland, declaring: "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security." Stephen Miller argued that American control was necessary to secure the Arctic and defend NATO's interests. On January 6th six European leaders issued an extraordinary joint statement reaffirming Greenlandic and Danish sovereignty. Within hours the White House said the president was considering a "range of options" to acquire Greenland, including military force.
Mette Frederiksen, Denmark's prime minister—once a leading candidate to be NATO's secretary-general—warned that any American move to seize Greenland would spell the end of the alliance. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland's prime minister, responded: "No more pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies about annexation."
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, told American lawmakers that Trump hoped to buy Greenland, portraying his bellicose rhetoric as a negotiating tactic. In December 2025 Trump appointed Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, as special envoy to Greenland—implying that the United States intended to treat Greenland as a separate entity from Denmark. American officials have discussed offering a Compact of Free Association (COFA), an agreement historically extended to small Pacific nations, which allows American forces to operate freely in signatory countries with the sweetener of duty-free trade. The Greenland government has so far rebuffed direct talks.
The CIA and the National Security Agency reportedly stepped up surveillance of Greenland's independence movement and were tasked with identifying locals sympathetic to the United States. Denmark summoned American diplomats twice in 2025 over reports of spying and running a covert influence campaign in Greenland. Denmark's military-intelligence service raised concerns about the United States in its annual threat assessment in December 2025.
On January 17th 2026 Trump imposed a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark and seven other European countries that had sent troops to Greenland, threatening 25% if the island was not in American hands by June 1st. At a speech in Davos he demanded "right, title and ownership" of Greenland but abandoned tariffs, ruled out force and spoke about NATO with a scorn that alarmed European capitals. He claimed America had paid "100%" for NATO and never got anything in return. On January 21st he and Mark Rutte, NATO's secretary-general, announced "the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland", and the tariffs were rescinded. Trump delegated the details to J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio. In an Economist/YouGov poll of more than 1,500 Americans conducted between January 16th and 19th 2026, just 29% approved of buying Greenland, though 58% of Republicans backed a purchase. Ted Cruz, a conservative senator, said he believed it was "overwhelmingly in America's national interest to acquire Greenland". A congressman tabled a bill authorising Trump to "take such steps as may be necessary" to secure Greenland as America's 51st state.
On January 28th 2026 American, Danish and Greenlandic officials met to discuss a new "framework agreement". There was chatter that America might secure sovereign base areas—pockets of American sovereign territory covering sites such as Pituffik Space Base—but officials in Copenhagen and Nuuk reiterated that sovereignty was not up for discussion. Jeff Landry, Trump's envoy, insisted in an op-ed that the agreement would lead to "total, unfettered access to the island", far short of Trump's public demand for acquisition; talks appeared to focus on revisions to the 1951 treaty. Marco Rubio said the working group would be a "regular process" kept out of the public eye. Mette Frederiksen, visiting Emmanuel Macron in Paris, noted that "Europe has learned some lessons over the past few weeks"—one being that Trump can be deterred by standing firm. Macron announced a new French consul to Greenland and gave a message in Greenlandic, the island's Inuit language.
Around 90% of Greenlanders are Inuit. Of the roughly 29,000 people who work, 12,500 are employed by the state. The majority of housing is government-owned; health care is free. The unemployed receive benefits equal to 90% of the minimum wage. Denmark sends the island's government almost $700m a year, equal to roughly 20% of Greenland's GDP. In an Economist/YouGov poll, 85% of Greenlanders rejected the idea of becoming part of the United States.
Tourism and fishing are thriving industries and unemployment is negligible. Investment is booming. No two towns are connected by road, limiting mining to coastal areas accessible by ship. Glaciers cover about 80% of the island. During the 20th century 18 mines shut down, often because of high costs or logistics. Arctic mining can cost between two and nearly three times as much as an equivalent project at lower latitudes. Climate change may ease some logistics—longer ice-free seasons at sea—but thawing permafrost also threatens infrastructure.
Greenland has two working mines. Nalunaq is a gold mine that was shut in 2014 and reopened in 2024 because of a surge in the bullion price. White Mountain produces anorthosite, an input for fibreglass and paint. It had to hire workers from Britain, Denmark and elsewhere, though around 80% of its staff are now local. "Everything is complex," says its boss, Martin Hannes of Lumina. "Transportation, particularly in winter, is almost impossible."
Kvanefjeld, on Greenland's southern tip, has had more than $100m spent developing it since 2007. Its owners applied for a mining licence in 2019, but Greenland's government blocked it over fears it could release uranium into farmland and fjords. Tanbreez, another nearby prospect, will have cost $290m before operations start in 2027. America's Export-Import Bank is considering a $120m loan. Unlike rare-earth mines elsewhere, its deposits are contained in eudialyte, a crimson mineral from which it is tricky to extract the elements commercially.
The biggest resources, estimated at more than 30bn barrels of oil equivalent, are in eastern Greenland, where conditions are extremely inhospitable. Oil giants including Shell, Equinor and ExxonMobil have all left.
See also: Arctic geopolitics.
One neuralgic issue in the independence debate is the approximately 4,500 Inuit girls and women who were forcibly fitted with contraceptive coils by Danish doctors during the 1960s and 1970s. Many Greenlanders argue it constituted a form of genocide. The Danish government has not issued an official apology. A joint investigation was due to report its results in September 2025.
"It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever," he said. "Have you thought of going into teaching?"